


sever the velvet rope

by hydroknife



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: 5 Times, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, M/M, crimson flower but not really, felix leaves blue lions, no established relationship but there are some hints to certain feelings early on lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 09:48:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30070404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydroknife/pseuds/hydroknife
Summary: There were 5 times Dimitri stood at the end of Felix's blade, and 1 time he fell.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Kudos: 7





	sever the velvet rope

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of (?) Crimson Flower route dmfx!! I took some liberties with canonical events and timelines to make it work a bit smoother, but I am very proud of this nonetheless! BIGGG thank you to Ren for helping me when I got stuck with scenarios and for generally checking the fic overall, I appreciate you!
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy my very long overdue contribution to the dmfx community <3

It's per custom that each Fraldarius heir receives his first sword at the age of 10, typically a wooden toy, just barely sculpted to a point at the end. Just enough to get used to the idea of the weapon, but not enough to actually cause any harm.

So, at the age of 10, Felix falls in love. His smile is nothing short of a large toothy grin as he stares at the gift put into his hands, and nothing could ever possibly tear his attention away in that moment.

Unless you were Dimitri. Another part of Felix's life that was practically introduced per tradition, the blond boy sitting next to him was just as important to Felix as the wooden toy in his hand. Perhaps it was fate that allowed the two boys to get along so well, much like their fathers and ancestors before them. Or, perhaps it was just genuine affection. Felix could usually be found attached to Dimitri's hip or vice versa, one boy tugging the other around to play or just hang around one another.

That much didn't change even as they were introduced to Sylvain and Ingrid, the two older children seamlessly fitting into the other pair, and soon enough all four children were inseparable.

Sylvain often teased the two, sometimes bringing Felix to crocodile tears -- Dimitri would always come to the rescue, hiding a smaller Felix behind his back as he tried to lecture their other friend. The spats were always forgotten within the hour, their group too occupied with play fights and seeing who could climb what tree faster. Things normal kids do, growing ever closer over the course of the coming years.

One of the first times Dimitri finds Felix's sword against his neck, they're mock fighting. It's been barely a year since Felix received that wooden sword, now scuffed up and well-used. Dimitri's shocked to find himself knocked to the ground after receiving a swift kick to the inside of his knee, unable to get up as he feels somebody's full weight crash into him, only to look up to find Felix's face grinning just above his own.

That would be the first, and last time Felix would manage such a feat as knocking the prince off his feet.

When Felix finally leaps back up with a victorious shout, he's grinning just as big as the day he received the sword in his hand.

" _ Glenn taught me that one, _ " he exclaims, and Dimitri can basically see the pride shining out of his eyes at the mention of his brother. " _ Now I know something you don't. _ "

Dimitri doesn't have the heart to take that advantage from him, his own grin growing fond as he watches Felix continue to ramble about his brother.

Given another year, Dimitri hits a growth spurt, as well as extends his winning streak against Felix.

He's tall for his age, leaving Felix quite a few inches behind, to his dismay. Both boys took no time in increasing the stakes of their friendly competitions, often resulting in their fathers having to coax them away from training lest they fall behind elsewhere.

It didn't take long for their normal activities to turn into genuine sword training either. After all, Dimitri and Felix were like sword and shield, and that much was to be expected.

The second time Dimitri finds Felix’s blade at his throat, just barely after his 13th birthday, his heart shakes from excitement. 

Leaps into his throat, lodged between his vocal chords. Stuck, a blockade to what surely would have been an embarrassing string of words, eyes locked with Felix’s sharp ones. His heart doesn’t journey back south until he turns the tables back on Felix, who holds an expression of building contempt. Dimitri’s lance is swapped for a sword, his only compromise to the battle, and the pair dance around each other for a moment longer.

It doesn’t last very long, Dimitri downing Felix the next time he gains the upper hand - he’s always tried very hard, always encouraged Dimitri to do the same - and he still loses every time. A simple cycle. Train, spar, lose, train again. Felix lies under him with his sword cast aside, eyes narrowed before he shoves at his friend’s shoulder. Dimitri moves, and extends a hand. Felix ignores it.

_ “Once more.” _

The heat in Felix’s eyes shows no sign of freezing over, and Dimitri thinks he might be watching Felix’s contempt grow in real time. Or, perhaps his determination, with a red tinge to his cheeks. It makes Dimitri feel warm, a smile splitting his lips as Felix rises to his feet. Dimitri decides to commit that expression to memory, stored behind a mental lock and key for a later date - as for right now, the only thought to stay in the forefront of his mind is putting Felix on his back again, with a sword in hand.

" _ What are you all dopey about?" _

" _ Nothing at all _ ," as the sound of metal seeking metal grows louder once more.

The next time cold metal seeks out his throat, Felix is crying. It isn’t a foreign sight, not to Dimitri, not to  _ any _ of them really - but this is different, with a red-eyed Ingrid trying to wedge herself between the two. Dimitri can faintly register bright hair quickly racing towards them, ready to break them apart. His world wavers and distorts his surroundings, much like Felix’s bottom lip as he spits his next words.

_ “Beast. A boar, seeking blood,” _

Dimitri could feel himself choke. As if Felix had dropped his weapon and decided to take Dimitri out with his own hands, to send him down under, right alongside Glenn. Everything becomes quiet and loud all at once, and Dimitri doesn’t even notice that Sylvain has come to pull Felix off him. 

It’s like a tunnel, a long dark tunnel with no particular exit. Trapped, with Felix yelling and screaming and crying until his voice becomes many. Until his voice becomes the sounds of battle, and Dimitri swears he can feel the bodies dropping at his feet--

“ _ Did you enjoy it? Their blood on your hands?” _

He comes back when the steel presses into his throat, harder. Just in time for Dimitri’s head to spin with words he cannot string together, unsure if the insult adds to injury or brings him back down to reality. No matter what it does for him, it does nothing for Felix. Dimitri’s lips part, but the words die on his tongue, dies with the feelings he could never explain - not with Felix looking at him like _ that _ . Like he’s all the worlds evil packed into one boy.

Like he’s not human.

_ “Felix, I--” _

And like that, the fight melts out of Felix as quickly as it had started. Dimitri duly notes that he’s too young to look that exhausted - but they all are, he realizes as he recalls Ingrid’s red rimmed eyes, and Sylvain’s empty ones. He doesn’t dare look to see what ghost haunts his own expression. 

Instead, he watches as Felix drops the sword from his throat. It hits the grass between their feet, and Dimitri feels himself grow weary.

It’s a task to get him to walk away, but once Felix averts his gaze and storms off, Dimitri has the feeling it’ll be the last time he’s able to look the boy in the eye. Ingrid casts him a glance, hesitant in the way that she begins to step backwards, slowly. Unsure, but still attempting to keep the steel in her gaze, in her voice. Attempting to be something they all aren't; unbreakable.

_ “We’ll figure this out, Dimitri. I promise.” _

With a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes, Dimitri nods.

“ _ Right. We always do.” _

The third time Dimitri is poised at the end of a blade, him and Felix have grown quite a few years older. Some people like to say that time heals everything, but not for them. Time frayed the rope stringing them together more and more, and it was bound to snap sooner or later.

Dimitri thought it might finally give way now, with Felix's amber eyes burning into his as they clashed once more.

Felix liked to use him for training, presumably due to his abnormal strength, and the fact that Dimitri was one of the easiest available options to test his own skills. Dimitri found that he couldn't say no when faced with the request either. The training grounds had quickly become like a second home to Felix, most of the time easily found fine-tuning his swordsmanship. It could be said that the teen lived and breathed the blade, but the truth of the statement likely rang truer than most thought.

To Dimitri, the training grounds sometimes felt like the last commonality he had left with Felix. Even it was just another form of the battleground, another facet of what their relationship had been branded from the start, when their ancestors had forged their legacy in blood and bone -- it almost brought him comfort to see Felix in that familiar element. One familiar to himself and to the other boy. He wondered if being surrounded by the sheen of swords, and the wood of training dummies put Felix at ease. Or, rather, if it was a sufficient distraction to the world around them.

All Felix asked of him was to not hold back. At first, that struck Dimitri's nerves to the core, made him profusely question if that was truly what Felix wanted. They've both seen him demonstrate his strength--both unintentionally and on the battlefield. Dimitri briefly thought of flames, of bodies, the feeling of death crawling over his hands. When Felix snapped him back to attention with a glare sharper than the blade Felix typically carried, he knew better than to even try and deny him that effort. Even if it pained him.

Even if it meant proving himself to be every bit of the boar Felix liked to claim he was.

He recalls that his moves were sloppy that day. Felix typically read him like a book, but even so, Felix had never managed to down him. Maybe he was distracted, restless brain flying elsewhere, or maybe lingering on details about the other that had no correlation to the sparring currently happening. Dimitri moved almost as if he was on autopilot, thinking himself in circles about the fact that this was the last sacred thing he had left with Felix, and even that was filled with violence and hatred.

Obviously, Felix wouldn't have that. He made it known in the form of a quick, shallow slash to Dimitri's cheek, just under his right eye. Not deep enough to leave a permanent scar, but enough to leave a reminder for weeks to come.

"The least you could do is pay attention," he mutters, arm falling to his side. Dimitri briefly reaches up to the wound on his cheek, slowly coming back to himself as he observes the red staining his fingers.

Flames, bodies, death.

" _ My apologies _ ."

His voice comes out, almost managing to sound normal. If it weren't for the slight waver to his words, maybe Felix wouldn't have even noticed how much of him was missing.

It's all Dimitri could seem to muster up, in that moment. He continues to gaze at Felix, mouth slightly ajar - as if he had more to say, more pretty words to explain himself, as he usually did. All that came was silence, and a slight ringing in his ears. Felix scoffs as he realizes none of those words will be coming, and turns on his heel.

" _ I'll find a more useful partner, then. Nothing left to gain from tearing into an empty husk, right _ ?"

He doesn't move as Felix's figure finally moves further away, blurring slightly before turning the corner and disappearing completely. The blur of Dimitri's thoughts races on for a few more moments, only finally settling on one coherent thought.

He's certain he's severed the final rope himself.

Dimitri is proven correct when Felix fails to be found among the Blue Lions class almost immediately after their spat. Instead, he's found loitering around Caspar and Linhardt, trying and failing to keep the distant misery from his eyes. He looks tired, more tired than usual.

They all do.

Their lives only grow more and more tiring from there.

The next time Felix holds Dimitri at the end of a blade, his breaths are haggard, and the blade is already coated in blood. There's blood everywhere, on Dimitri's hands, on his lance, on Felix's face. In patches of grass around them, as bodies upon bodies clash and fall in waves.

Dimitri had been looking for Edelgard, but Felix had found  _ him _ first. He stands on guard, both of their bodies surprisingly still among the chaos around them. As if they were in their own little world.

He assesses Felix's current state, and finds himself drawn to a myriad of deep slashes across his side. His first instinct is to take a step closer, to take care of Felix like old times - but he remembers that he's not in a memory. He's in the present, where Felix holds hatred in every cell of his body, and Dimitri is his primary target.

Dimitri takes a shuddering breath, and looks at the blade shaking beneath his chin. Despite the hatred, Felix can't seem to move.

" _ Are you going to kill me, now?" _

Felix grits his teeth, the fire in his eyes growing stronger. Similar to how it would when they were kids, when an enjoyable challenge presented itself to Felix. A different type of fire, but it burns all the same.

_ "Obviously,"  _ he spits out, and Dimitri watches as he tries to rally himself up, to make the final push.

Before he gets the chance, Felix is coughing up blood.

Dimitri knows that he should, somewhere inside, be grateful. His life is being spared for another day. Felix can't kill him if he's too busy dying himself, panic shining in eyes that have seen too much death and destruction for their years on this earth.

A sense of panic that screams how badly he doesn't want to die here.

He should be grateful that he's not becoming another body to Felix's name, one with a history richer than most.

Instead, his own eyes begin to mirror Felix's. Before he can even truly think it through, Dimitri is hoisting Felix into the air and onto his shoulder, hand locked in place over the still bleeding wounds on his side. He hopes that he isn't worsening the damage, or that Felix's attempts at breaking free aren't either.

He decides there that it is hard to carry someone who is still intent on killing you.

Despite Felix's near constant swinging, Dimitri knocks the blade from his grasp and readjusts his hold, heading straight for enemy lines. Felix's struggling doesn't cease, and neither do the curses streaming from his mouth, which Dimitri tries to tune out as he focuses on finding the dark green head of hair he knows belongs to Linhardt. As far as Dimitri knows, he's capable enough of healing the boy strung over his back.

When he finally spots him, several pairs of eyes find him in return, some gearing up to strike before Dimitri's voice cuts through the noise.

"Wait!"

He's almost shocked when he sees weapons pause momentarily, wary until Dimitri begins to shift Felix off of his shoulders. He's still bleeding profusely, skin starting to get paler, clammier -- Linhardt immediately disregards Dimitri's figure when he catches a glimpse of Felix's injuries.

He cringes, as if he's afraid of the mess he begins to clean up.

Felix is coughing again, laid against grass stained red, eyes locked onto Dimitri's face.

" _ Obviously," _ he hisses out again, before Linhardt blocks his view of Dimitri, getting straight to work. Pretending that he isn't there. Dimitri takes his chance, and begins to fight his way back to his allies, with Felix's promise still ringing in his ears.

He knew that if he was to see Felix again, it would likely be within the last moments of his life.

And sure enough, Dimitri's last moments came with him knelt before Felix. The strain of battle left him breathless, dare he say, already defeated; there was an intense sorrow holding his heart when he looked around the sea of corpses that were once his friends. He tried hard not to think about Dedue's, lying just a few feet away, no longer holding onto the same humanity he did when he entered the battlefield earlier today.

Dimitri huffed a bitter laugh, eyes fixed on the shaking hands around the blade before him. A memory sparked his mind.

" _ Are you going to kill me, now? _ "

His eyes remained on the blade as it rose. Felix's voice came as a whisper.

" _ Obviously." _

The last thing Dimitri saw was Felix's armed silhouette, framed by carnage. If he had enough time left to get a glimpse of Felix's expression, he would've noticed the singular tear that fought to escape his eye as he swung towards Dimitri's throat with all the strength he could muster.

It was as if a burning sunset had violently overtaken the midday sky, watching as it vanquished the blue tones into darkness and bits of stardust. Areadbhar lay mere inches from Dimitri's limp palm, almost as to indicate that it was faithful to its fallen king until the very end. Much unlike the man who stood over him.

Felix felt numbness spread through his chest as he looked over the scene he was to leave behind him, shoulders sagging with weight that he'd meant to shed long ago. Weight that he'd thought this very action would rid him of. Instead, it doubled down as Dimitri's life vanished by his own hands.

When Felix finally left the battlefield, he forced himself to keep his eyes forward, never to look back to the carnage behind him. Dimitri would lay gone, but certainly not forgotten. Not by anyone, and certainly not by Felix.

There were 5 times Dimitri stood at the end of Felix’s blade, and one time he fell.

  
  
  
  



End file.
